Draw or forefeit? Pakistan awaits ICC reaction to MCC view

Karachi, Oct 28 (IANS) The Pakistan Cricket Board has adopted a wait and watch policy on the Marylebone Cricket Club’s (MCC) recommendation to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to overturn its award of a draw for the disputed England-Pakistan Test at the Oval in August 2006.A top PCB official told IANS that the board will keep its fingers crossed and wait for ICC’s reaction on the MCC ruling.

“It is an issue between the ICC and the MCC and we are not a direct party in this case,” Saleem Altaf, the PCB director general said. “We will see how the ICC reacts to the MCC ruling and then decide our (PCB’s) course of action,” he added.

The MCC, the guardian of the game’s laws, ruled Tuesday that the ICC had no legal power to change the result of the Oval Test in which Pakistan refused to play, but nor does it plan to restore the original forfeit despite being roundly condemned by the game’s independent lawmaker and conscience.

The MCC said it will refuse to recognise the draw that was awarded by the ICC for the disputed 2006 Oval Test, in which Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq refused to play in protest after umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove charged his team with ball-tampering.

It stressed that the ICC was wrong to change the result from a forfeit to a draw, a decision that effectively meant a team could refuse to follow the umpires onto the field and not lose the match. It is widely believed that the PCB managed to get the result overturned with the help of the so-called Asian bloc earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the ICC’s cricket operations manager David Richardson will report back to the ICC on the results of MCC’s two-day meeting in Delhi, but there is no suggestion the forfeit will be restored to cricket’s records.

“The MCC is entitled to its view but it is the ICC that regulates the game,” an ICC spokesman said. “For the time being, the decision stays.”